Gabon international, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, will miss his side's season-defining crunch tie away to Hertha BSC and, likely, Saturday's match away to VfB Stuttgart having been forced to leave training early on Monday.
Sitrep
The story was made official a day later by Borussia Dortmund and Thomas Tuchel revealed Aubameyang had suffered a verbatim "very painful" toe injury, which, furthermore, had been "causing him problems for weeks." The manager initially expected his star player to be eligible to play, but hours later, the club announced the striker had underwent an MRI scan showing the extent of the injury: bone-splintering in one of the toes on the right foot.
Dortmund are yet to announce the severity of the toe injury, but the club's top-scorer is widely expected to also miss the match at Stuttgart on Saturday afternoon, despite sounding confident on Monday. This could prove to be the 26-year old's first major injury of the season, having missed a mere four games as a result of other, separate injuries.
Aubameyang is the Bundesliga's second highest top goalscorer and a crucial cog in Tuchel's goal-happy side, notching up an impressive 23 goals past domestic competition.
Lukaku rumours and Ramos as backup
Thinking ahead to the next window, the club have already courted the services of Everton striker, Romelu Lukaku, who has enjoyed another great season for the Toffees and was reportedly shown round Dortmund's training ground, fueling rumours. The Belgian international has indicated he may well leave Goodison Park this summer in search of European football. However, boss Roberto Martinez has since rejected the very notion of selling their key forward.
After scoring twice in the win over Hamburger SV and scoring the winner against Werder Bremen, Colombian Adrián Ramos, who has continued his great run of form, is expected to start against his former club, for whom he served for five years scoring 58 goals.